Mexico nabs escaped drug lord

Sunday

Feb 23, 2014 at 12:01 AMFeb 23, 2014 at 11:37 AM

MAZATLAN, Mexico - The most-wanted drug trafficker in the world, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was captured yesterday at a hotel in the resort city of Mazatlan, a U.S. law-enforcement official confirmed. • The arrest followed a weeklong operation in which several top leaders of Guzman's powerful Sinaloa cartel were captured in Culiacan, Sinaloa. • The arrest, led by Mexican marines, was part of a joint operation with U.S. anti-drug forces. The organizations in the past have gained a reputation for working well together.

MAZATLAN, Mexico — The most-wanted drug trafficker in the world, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was captured yesterday at a hotel in the resort city of Mazatlan, a U.S. law-enforcement official confirmed. • The arrest followed a weeklong operation in which several top leaders of Guzman’s powerful Sinaloa cartel were captured in Culiacan, Sinaloa. • The arrest, led by Mexican marines, was part of a joint operation with U.S. anti-drug forces. The organizations in the past have gained a reputation for working well together.

No shots were fired, the U.S. law-enforcement official said, ending a 13-year manhunt for the elusive criminal.

The arrest is a major boost for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has been criticized for focusing more on the economy than security concerns in Mexico.

Earlier in the week, Pena Nieto hosted President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his hometown of Toluca for a summit focusing on trade.

Guzman was thought to have been protected by corrupt Mexican officials, underscoring why the marines were working largely on their own during the hunt in recent days.

The arrest came amid concerns that violence will spike as trafficking groups scramble to fill a power vacuum, especially in places like Baja California and Ciudad Juarez, two border areas where violence has fallen in recent months after years of an all-out war between rival groups, led by the Sinaloans.

More than 11,000 people were killed in recent years in Juarez alone, for a time making the city across the border from El Paso, Texas, the epicenter of Mexico’s drug violence.

One U.S. source said that Guzman had been reduced to a figurehead of the Sinaloa cartel and that the real power now lies with Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, whose bodyguards were among those arrested last week. One of the arrests took place in the home of Guzman’s former girlfriend in Culiacan, a U.S. official said.

The Sinaloa cartel is accused of smuggling huge amounts of illegal drugs into the United States, as well as to Europe and elsewhere.

Guzman, known as “Shorty,” had been on the run since escaping from a high-security prison in 2001, a year after Vicente Fox became president.

Guzman, who began his career as a drug trafficker in his early teens, had long vowed he would never allow himself to be captured alive.